Champion Guide for LoL Newbies 6. Poppy (Ugly Poppy / 빻삐)

Hey newbies, today we’re looking at Poppy. Poppy is known as the most oppressive champion in Demacia. Even back in her pre-rework days when her face was hideous, she was still decent performance-wise, but her appearance and reputation kept her as a hidden sleeper pick. After the rework, her look changed.

(The plastic surgeon is amazing)

And her reputation improved, making her a beloved champion. She’s not picked as much these days, though.

(Because of these guys)

But she’s still a popular counter pick, especially as a later selection.

1. Lore

Poppy is a yordle who, according to the legend of the hammer, travels to find a warrior who can fully unleash the hammer’s power. Unlike other yordles, Poppy wanted a stable life – maybe she wanted to be a civil servant. When she came to a human settlement, she met a man named Orlon, who was an outstanding soldier. Seeing how sternly he drilled his troops, Poppy wanted to be friends with him, and they talked a lot. Eventually, they became inseparable friends. Since yordles live much longer than humans, Orlon handed his hammer over to Poppy. Poppy promised Orlon she would give the hammer to a true warrior. But the truth is, Orlon gave it to her because he thought she WAS the true owner of the hammer...

(Thick-headed girl...)

2. Skills

Passive – Iron Ambassador Poppy periodically throws her shield on her basic attacks with increased range, dealing bonus magic damage. Picking up the shield from the ground grants a shield that absorbs damage for 3 seconds. The shield gets crushed if an enemy steps on it.

Killing a target with Iron Ambassador causes the shield to instantly return to Poppy.

Poppy throws her shield periodically, and it's really annoying for the opponent. This passive is why Poppy's laning is stronger than you'd expect. Against melee champions, the poke with the shield is effective because of the range advantage. Also, if you last-hit a minion with the passive, you get a shield, and you can go in for a selfish trade relying on that shield.

Q – Hammer Shock Poppy slams the ground, dealing physical damage and creating an unstable zone. Enemies inside the zone are slowed. After 1 second, the zone erupts, dealing the same damage again.

This is Poppy's main damage skill, with an AOE slow. It's good for waveclear and also for slowing clumped enemies in teamfights. It synergizes well with her core item, Iceborn Gauntlet.

W – Steadfast Presence Passive: Poppy gains bonus armor and magic resistance (10% of her armor and MR). When Poppy's health is below 40%, the bonus is doubled.

Active: For the next 2.5 seconds, Poppy gains 30% bonus movement speed and creates a barrier that stops charging enemies, dealing magic damage to them.

The reason she's picked as a counter to Jax in top lane is because of her W. Since it blocks most gap closers, she can handle champions like Jax in lane. Still, Jax hits so hard that if they just go at each other, Poppy might lose – I'm not sure. If you maintain distance with passive poke and block his jump with Q, maybe it's okay, right?

Remember, Poppy's W cannot block Ezreal's Arcane Shift or Malphite's ultimate.

E – Heroic Charge

Poppy charges at a single enemy, dealing physical damage and pushing them. If the target hits terrain, they take bonus physical damage and are stunned for a duration.

There will come a day when you newbies feel extreme hatred and scream, "What kind of motherless champion is this!!" – and it'll probably be because of this E skill. In a teamfight, once you get slammed into a wall (wall stunned) and then hit by Q, you can pretty much put your hands down and go to the bathroom. You'll be looking at a gray screen, I bet.

R – Keeper's Verdict

First Cast: Poppy channels for up to 4 seconds, slowed by 15% while charging. Second Cast: Poppy slams the ground, creating a shockwave that sends all enemies hit flying toward their base. The range and knockback distance scale with channel time. If you recast immediately without charging, it deals half damage and knocks enemies into the air for 0.75 seconds. Enemies hit by the fully-charged Keeper's Verdict become untargetable for a short duration.

This ultimate requires the most situational awareness of all her skills. It can be used to avoid ganks in lane, or in teamfights to send the enemy tank flying so you can isolate their carries. Because it has so many uses, the risk of misusing it is high. Since you're slowed during the channel, you're vulnerable, so use it wisely.

3. Run Summon Aery On basic attack or ability, send a spirit to the target – deals adaptive damage to enemies or shields allies. You can't target another enemy until Aery returns to you.

A tank using Aery? You're allowed to think that. But Poppy's laning revolves around poking with her passive shield, so Aery synergizes well with the shield bonus. It even makes kill opportunities easier. Of course, since you're not taking Resolve runes, you'll be squishier, so you need to space better in lane.

Every 4 seconds in combat, your next attack on a champion deals 4% of your max health as bonus magic damage, heals you for 2% of your max health, and permanently increases your health by 5. Ranged champions: damage and heal reduced by 40%, permanent health gain is 3.

Of course, you can also take Grasp for safety.

Top lane is what it is! Yep! Ma! If you win lane, you win the game! Yep! If you lose lane, you lose the game! Yep! Don't you agree!

Of course, it's a choice between Grasp or Aery depending on the situation, so use your judgment wisely.

4. Items

Sunfire Cape Poppy only has Q for waveclear, so Sunfire is a must. If the enemy is AP, don't rush it, but at least get Bami's Cinder. Her waveclear is really weak.

Iceborn Gauntlet Because Poppy's Q cooldown is very short, she can reliably proc Spellblade. It also helps with pushing. But since it doesn't give health, it's not ideal as a first item. Normally it's picked as a 2nd or 3rd item.

If you're crushing lane, maybe Trinity Force is good too? hehe

Adaptive Helm

Poppy has no health sustain, so Spirit Visage isn't great. Use Adaptive Helm to block enemy AP damage.

5. Pro Play Status In season 6, Poppy reigned as the top lane king in pro play. Gen.G's CuVee (Lee Seong-jin)

IG's Duke (Lee Ho-seong)

100 Thieves' Ssumday (Kim Chan-ho)

Many pro players used Poppy. Her top lane winrate was 53% in LCK, and she was a near-permanent ban in Europe and NA. Now her status has dropped a lot and she's rarely picked, but back then Poppy was so good you either banned or picked her.

(Poppy, the most oppressive champion of season 6)

6. Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths 1- Stable Laning: As a tank with passive poke, her laning is decent. She has great gank evasion with her ultimate, and her W and E make her good at setting up ganks. She can handle lane phase smoothly.

2- Playmaking and Engaging: She can turn around unfavorable teamfight scenarios with her ultimate, and she can freely engage with her E.

3- Reliable in Objective Fights (A fed Poppy guarding her team's Baron attempt)

Using W and R, she can easily block enemies trying to interfere with her team's objective in narrow corridors.

4- Excellent Dive Ability (Time to dive) Because her E can stun even against towers, Poppy is a great champion for tower dives. The movement speed from W and her tankiness make diving less risky.

Weaknesses 1- Poor Wave Management She has no sustain, her only waveclear is Q, and her only ranged poke is her passive, so wave management is difficult. Once she falls behind, it becomes extremely hard, so Poppy struggles against champions that constantly poke or have good sustain.

2- High-Risk Skills If the E doesn't stun or the R is misused, she's often left with nothing. I don't know if it's a Demacia tradition, but many of those champions are all-in after one skill rotation, and Poppy is no exception. (A yordle but affiliated with Demacia)

3- Limitations as a Conditional CC Immobile Champ Her W only works against champions with dashes, her E only works if there's a wall, so landing CC reliably is awkward. Q and R have short range and are hard to hit, and if the enemy has a poke comp, Poppy just gets poked down.

4- Helpless Against a Fed Attack-Speed ADC If the enemy ADC maintains distance and kites, Poppy just gets kited and dies. Her skill ranges are too short to do anything. That's just life as an immobile champ.

7. Matchups

Weak Can't win in a fistfight, can't run away even with wall stun because his pillar blocks you. He has good sustain, and his ult is anti-tank. You cannot win.

Just ban him. One pull and you're done. Once he gets Black Cleaver, one hit means death. Honestly, if he's picked, don't play Poppy.

Poppy also struggles against champions with great poke.

Strong

These are champions whose mobility gets blocked by Poppy's W – they're easy to handle.

Immobile champs with no gap closers You can trade unilaterally with wall stun, and later just ult them away. Immobile champs can't do much against Poppy.

That's all for today. With Sion falling off, Poppy is being mentioned a lot as the next engage champion. If you practice her, maybe spring will come someday. (Right?)

Next time, we'll learn about Soraka. See you next time, bye~~~!